Police Cleared In Man's Death

WETHERSFIELD — Police were justified in shooting homicide suspect Gerard Chapdelaine last November because he'd fired several times at police and refused repeated demands to drop his weapon, a state prosecutor ruled.

Chapdelaine was shot by Wethersfield officers and killed on the Silas Deane Highway.

Scott J. Murphy, state's attorney for the New Britain judicial district, which includes Wethersfield, said it was reasonable for Officer Anthony DeMonte to use deadly force and fire his Colt M-4 carbine at Chapdelaine, who continued to shoot at police with his Ruger .357 handgun.

"This ends the investigation. It's over," Murphy said Friday after his report was made public.

Other officers who were at the scene Nov. 6 and fired shots that also wounded Chapdelaine acted reasonably, Murphy said.

Chapdelaine, 39 of Hartford, did not injure any of the Wethersfield officers who confronted him. Wethersfield police only learned after the shooting that Chapdelaine was wanted in neighboring Hartford for a slaying about a hour prior to the Silas Deane Highway gunfight.

Hartford police said Chapdelaine killed Lorna Coley, 47, the mother of his 18-year-old girlfriend, with a point-blank shot to the head inside the family's Hartford apartment. He also tried to shoot two other people, but the weapon jammed. He ran off after shooting Coley, police said.

Blood spatters on Chapdelaine - later determined to be from Coley - alarmed a store clerk when Chapdelaine walked into a convenience store to buy cigarettes.

The clerk's call to police brought Chapdelaine and police together on the rain-swept road that night.

Wethersfield Police Chief James Cetran was relieved Friday that state investigators cleared the officers.

"I did truly expect it. I was there very soon after the shots were fired. We cooperated with every single aspect of the investigation," Cetran said. The final report shows "we did everything aboveboard."

The officers involved in the shooting were taken off suspension and allowed to resume their regular jobs two weeks after the incident.

"We needed them," Cetran said.

The report says that when police found Chapdelaine walking on Silas Deane, he pulled a handgun from his waistband, cursed, pointed the gun at officers, ignored orders to drop the gun and began firing.

In his report, Murphy said Chapdelaine's gun misfired several times when he tried to shoot at the officers. Several of his shell casings had multiple strike marks on them, indicating misfires.

"It is apparent that this individual did not expect to survive his encounter with the police," Hartford Police Chief Daryl K. Roberts said Friday after the report was issued. "It is a shame that so many lives were disrupted in this ugly domestic situation."

Cetran said the five officers involved had "no choice" when they shot Chapdelaine.

"He showed that he had killed and would kill again," Cetran said. "He kept firing his gun, and he was surrounded by five officers. They did what they were supposed to do. Unfortunately, someone had to die."